RSS Feeds

What are RSS feeds?

News feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content. You can get the latest headlines and videos in one place, as soon as it is published, without having to visit the websites themselves.

Feeds are also known as RSS. There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but most people plump for 'Really Simple Syndication'. In essence, the feeds themselves are just web pages, designed to be read by computers rather than people.

How do I start using feeds?

In general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks the feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications.

Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store then on your main computer, in the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like Hotmail.